July 2014
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MEETINGS
No meeting this month, but stay tuned — website, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn — for details on the Aug. 26 program with author-writing teacher Carmen Goldthwaite on ways to make your writing sing.
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No meeting this month. As chapter president Richie Escovedo puts it, everyone’s gone fishin’.
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Merriment shall abound at the summer mixer with Hispanic Communicators DFW,
Saturday, July 12, at Dave and Karen Lieber’s home in Keller. See multicolored announcement above. RSVP.
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STRAIGHT STUFF
Keynote speakers David Quammen with National Geographic and Pulitzer Prize-winning authors Lawrence Wright and Sheri Fink will highlight the annual Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference, July 18-20 in
Grapevine. Info at themayborn.com. ...
Dallas author Chris Keniston will discuss how the writer's world has changed with the advent of independent
publishing at the next Writers’ Guild of Texas meeting, 7 p.m. Monday, July 21, at the Richardson Public
Library. From her own experience, she will share options, sources and
strategies for braving this new publishing world.
PRSA local update II: PRSA members make the news. PR News recently spotlighted Fort Worthers Gigi Westerman, APR, Fellow PRSA, and Sandra Brodnicki, APR, for the Money School program they created for Catholic Charities Fort Worth. The program took Best
of Show in the inaugural year of the Worthy Awards (2012) and earned a PR News
Nonprofit Award in 2013. | Greater Fort Worth PRSA president Richie Escovedo wrote a Fort Worth Business Press guest column on the importance of having a strategic communication process when school
districts (think Fort Worth ISD) undergo leadership changes. | Chapter president-elect and VP membership Michelle Clark, APR, attended the 2014 PRSA Leadership Rally, June 13-14 in New York City. The
rally is an orientation and networking event designed to help prepare PRSA
leaders for 2014 and beyond. | Nancy Farrar of Farrar Public Relations is the new food columnist at Fort Worth, Texas
Magazine. As Chef Impersonator, she creates the recipes and makes the dishes. Her culinary alter ego debuted
in the June issue.
PRSA local update III: Greater Fort Worth PRSA will offer a free boot camp for members interested in
earning the Universal Accreditation Board’s designation — accredited in public relations, or APR. Fees associated with taking the exam
are explained online. Four structured study sessions begin in September or
October; accredited chapter members will guide discussions about the exam’s tactical and strategic content, plus offer preparation for the readiness
review and online exam. Readiness reviews will be completed after the final
study session. The process concludes with the required online exam at a local
Prometrics testing facility. More from accreditation co-chairs
Linda Jacobson, APR, at lindald.jacobson@gmail.com or Carolyn Bobo, APR, Fellow PRSA, cgbobo6311@att.net. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the designation, which is managed by
eight professional communications organizations, including PRSA.
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THIS MONTH IN PR/MARKETING HISTORY BY JEFF RODRIGUEZ
An irreverent look at the people and events that keep us up at night
Motion Denied
A Judge’s Nomination to the Supreme Court
Created a Media Firestorm — and a New Word
Being a Supreme Court justice means having the opportunity to profoundly impact
the culture. But rarely does a judge change the culture by being nominated but
never serving. That’s what happened July 1, 1987, when President Reagan announced that he had nominated Robert Bork for the nation’s highest court, thus setting in motion a series of events that reshaped public
relations.
Chosen to replace the retiring Lewis Powell, Bork was controversial even before the nomination. A strong advocate of
judicial restraint, he questioned the court’s contention that the Constitution implicitly recognizes a right to privacy. He
wrote a book arguing that antitrust laws might not benefit consumers. And
several years previous, while acting attorney general, he carried out Richard Nixon’s order to fire Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox. The job fell to Bork after both the attorney general and his deputy resigned
rather than obey the president.
So Bork’s nomination set the PR wheels in overdrive. Women’s groups, civil rights groups and the ACLU all weighed in, but the most
influential critic was Sen. Ted Kennedy. Speaking from the Senate floor, Kennedy said Bork’s presence on the bench would result in evolution being restricted from schools,
midnight police raids on homeowners and segregated lunch counters. He
concluded, “No justice would be better than this injustice.”
Soon TV commercials critical of Bork popped up, narrated by the respected actor Gregory Peck. The Washington City Paper published a list of videos Bork had rented that
included “Ruthless People,” “The Man Who Knew Too Much” and other shocking titles. In a bit of judicial irony, this later resulted in a
law known as the Video Privacy Protection Act.
Reagan had known that Bork’s nomination would meet with resistance, but this being 1987, the administration
was not prepared for the intensity of the attacks. It would be more than two
months before a formal response emerged — in today’s PR world, an unimaginable lag.
Some conservative groups were effective in rallying support, but the damage was
done. In October the Senate rejected the nomination, 58-42. In another contrast
with current times, two Democrats voted for Bork, and six Republicans opposed
him. The next month, Reagan nominated Anthony Kennedy, whom the Senate approved by a slim 97-0 vote.
Bork’s fitness as a Supreme Court justice remains in contention. He did have some
unusual views, and most observers agree that he did not represent himself well
at his Senate hearings. On the other hand, no one questioned his intellect, and
he is credited with influencing the thinking of the conservative justices who
followed.
But in one area his legacy is indisputable: His nomination led to the creation
of a word, bork, defined at dictionary.com as “to attack a candidate or public figure systematically, especially in the media.” The Oxford English Dictionary even added an entry for bork in 2002.
The most notorious use of bork as a verb occurred in 1991, when Clarence Thomas was nominated to the court. As opposition swelled, a member of the National
Organization for Women gave a speech stating, “We're going to bork him. We're going to kill him politically.”
NOW and others did indeed bork Thomas, but this time the nominee prevailed,
pointing out the clear need for a word meaning “to overcome being borked.”
Disillusioned by it all, Bork would resign his seat on the U.S. Court of
Appeals. He became a fellow at a think tank and later taught law. He also
worked as a legal adviser for the Mitt Romney campaign. Bork died in December 2012.
Attacking a political opponent is as old as, well, politics. The oddity about
Bork’s experience is that he was not a politician but a judge; at the time of his
nomination, being confirmed by the Senate was pretty much a given. It also didn’t help that he had such a great name. Try making your name into a verb.
Today it’s assumed that every nomination will provoke controversy, and both sides keep
their PR machines on 24-hour alert. But the nomination of Robert Bork remains a
good reminder: While judges rule in the court of law, in the court of public
opinion PR pros have a very strong case to make.
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Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas update: Attorney General Greg Abbott, under fire for blocking public access to state records documenting the
location of dangerous chemicals, says Texans still can find out where the
substances are stored — they just have to ask. “You know where they are if you drive around,” Abbott told reporters. “You can ask every facility whether or not they have chemicals or not. You can
ask them if they do, and they can tell you, well, we do have chemicals or we
don’t have chemicals, and if they do, they tell which ones they have.” In a recent decision by his office, Abbott, the Republican candidate for
governor, said government entities can withhold the state records, in so-called
Tier II reports, of dangerous chemical locations. The reports contain an
inventory of hazardous chemicals. Collected under the federal Community Right
to Know Act, the information was made available upon request for decades to
homeowners, the media or anyone else who wanted to know where dangerous
chemicals were stored.
Details. Meanwhile, Abbott is appealing a whistleblower’s lawsuit and $1.2 million verdict, arguing that an El Paso jury was wrong when
it decided that the office fired an employee in retaliation for alerting
supervisors to internal wrongdoing. It is the second whistleblower lawsuit
against the attorney general to grab recent headlines. Details. ... Congress may take action this year to strengthen the Freedom of Information
Act. The National Security Archive at George Washington University posted a
bill by U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, called the FOIA Improvement Act of 2014. A separate FOIA update
bill has already passed the U.S. House. Details. ... A federal judge gave a big boost to Texas’ anti-SLAPP statute by granting a South Texas television station’s motion to dismiss and applying the state law in federal court for the first
time.The state law enacted in 2011 was designed to thwart malicious or
frivolous lawsuits that aim to chill free speech, known as strategic lawsuits
against public participation, or SLAPP suits. U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos dismissed a challenge to the anti-SLAPP statute and the argument that it was a
procedural rule that conflicted with federal rules. Ramos held that the statute
creates a significant substantive First Amendment right and should be applied
in federal court. Details.
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GET A JOB
POLITICO Pro is looking for a reporter to cover energy and environmental policy. ... D Magazine Partners offers a variety of internships each semester. ... The Cleburne Times Review seeks a reporter for Johnson
County government, some cities, writing features, sports and photography.
Ability to paginate using InDesign a plus. Dependable transportation required.
Send cover letter, résumé, references and work samples to managing editor Dale Gosser, P.O. Box 1569, Cleburne, TX 76033; or e- dgosser@trcle.com. ... The Dallas Morning News seeks a full-time designer with experience building news and feature pages. ... The Victoria Advocate
needs two reporters to cover the nonprofits beat and arts/diversity in South
Texas. Send résumé and cover letters to Chris Cobler, ccobler@vicad.com. ... The Texas Department of Transportation has an opening for a communications director. ...
Journalism jobs in the Rio Grande Valley: reporters, night city editor,
designer/layout/copy editor and sports reporter at The Monitor and Mid-Valley
Town Crier. E- Sandra Sanchez, ssanchez@themonitor.com. ... The Denton Record-Chronicle seeks a copy editor. E- new editor Scott Parks at sparks@dallasnews.com.
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NEW AND RETURNING MEMBERS
SPJ ... Joy Donovan Brandon, American Cancer Society ... Jean Marie Brown, TCU
PRSA ... Vanassa Joseph, Trinity River Authority ... Michael Magnus,Tandy Leather Factory
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PRESIDENT’S COLUMN
Richie Escovedo, Greater Fort Worth PRSA
We're halfway through the year, so let’s pause. GFW PRSA will not meet in July. But that doesn't mean the work stops.
As of this writing, 20 chapter members are judging PRSA Arkansas’ Prism Awards. Their work meets our reciprocal judging obligation to that
chapter for its outstanding help with our Worthy Awards.
Other than that, we are in planning/scheduling mode for the second half of the
year. Be sure to join us Wednesday, Aug. 13, for "Defamation and Invasion of
Privacy: What Communicators Must Know in 2014 and Beyond" with commercial
litigator and trial attorney Laura Elkind.
And save Wednesday, Sept. 10, for our annual ethics month program. This year we’re bringing back Dr. Doug Newsom, APR, Fellow PRSA, on the eye-catching topic “PR Ethics: Only Fifty Shades of Grey?”
Until then, I hope those of you who are getting a much-deserved (and needed!)
respite from work remember to take time for yourself to recharge and reconnect
so you can return ready to roll. As for me, I'll be in Montana with my
amazingly supportive (and patient) family: my Wonder Wife, Kristen, and our Little Princess and Little Man.
Gone fishin'.
P.S. We’re forming an ad hoc committee to create a three-year strategic plan to help
guide the chapter’s board and volunteers. If you’d like to assist, e-mail me at richie.escovedo@gmail.com.
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IABC: STAYING CONNECTED
Betsy Deck, IABC Fort Worth
You’ve worked hard all year. Let’s take July off to enjoy this beautiful summer. When we reconvene, it’s road trip city — a different luncheon location every month. We’ve been studying the membership map and hope this will help spread the love and
make your commute easier. For now,
sit back, relax and enjoy the flight. We’ll catch you in August!
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OVER & OUT
John Dycus, Fort Worth SPJ
Sweet Etta Hulme died last month at 90 years of age, and the world lost a little magic. The embodiment of the
phrase “a twinkle in your eye,” she was better than any man in the man’s world of editorial cartooning, and she brought a wry, provocative, incisive
depth to the Star-Telgram that likely isn’t coming back any time soon. Driving down a country road in a Model T truck, a
passel of Republicans and a few Democrats in the bed, she could reach out the
window and slap every one of them and never let the truck swerve. She earned
her pay on politicians’ arrogance, ignorance, hypocrisy and greed. In Texas this should have made her a
millionaire. ...
You really don’t want to miss the summer fling at the house that watchdogging built, the Keller
estate (“ranchette”) of Dave and Karen Lieber. One of the tastiest SPJ meals I ever had was at this same jolly-up last year
at Kristin Sullivan’s. Should we expect more potluck artistry this time? Sure, we should. Thanks in
advance to the food contributors and to Buddy Jones, who’ll be grilling while everyone else is chilling. Read all about it — and RSVP — here.
Caught my eye. Pentagon wants to tackle climate change — but Congress forbids it. ... Ocean so acidic, it’s ‘dissolving the shells of our baby oysters.’ ... Massive dose of measles vaccine defeats blood cancer in groundbreaking Mayo
Clinic experiment. ... California could run out of water in 2 years. ... Manmade island floats on 150,000 recycled plastic bottles. ... Hempcrete startup kickstarts a revolution in sustainable green building in US. ... Pollution-fighting billboards purify 100,000 cubic meters of air every day. ... The cutting-edge tech that will finally bring desalination to US. ... 7 cities making their urban rivers swimmable again. ... Tiny English village blocks giant fracking operation, announces plans to build
community-owned solar power plants. ... Altaeros set to break world record with 1,000-foot-high floating wind turbine.
Closing words: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." — philosopher and poet George Santayana, who also said, "History is a pack of lies about events that never happened
told by people who weren't there" and, "There are books in which the footnotes
or comments scrawled by some reader's hand in the margin are more interesting
than the text. The world is one of these books"